The longview of the TEDGlobal 2013 main stage, home to many amazing moments today. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

Something special happens when you think again. All it takes is an insightful thought and — all of a sudden — your brain does a backflip and you see faulty assumptions underlying what you’d always taken to be true. The first day of mainstage talks at TEDGlobal 2013 brought so many of these paradigm-shifting moments — and many more that just happened to be a lot of fun. Below, some highlights of the day.

John Kenny plays the carynx. John Kenney is best known for playing the trombone. So when he stepped on the TED stage wielding a carynx — an ancient Celtic horn with a bell shaped like a boar’s head — our jaws collectively dropped. As he played, the boar’s tongue wagged, producing an unearthly wail that evoked an ancient, misty moor. Read more about the talk ».

George Papandreou speaks amid protests. As former Prime Minister of Greece stepped to the stage to give a personal talk about the failure of leadership, protesters marched down the street to the Edinburgh International Convention Centre to oppose his presence. We spoke with the protesters and asked if they’d like us to ask Papandreou a question from them on stage. See what they asked ».

Manal al-Sharif gets a standing ovation halfway through her talk. Telling the story of why she dared to break the Saudi ban on women driving — and to film the whole thing — Manal al-Sharif struck a major chord with the audience when she said, “It’s because I love my country that I’m doing this. I believe a society will not be free if women of that society are not free.” Read more about the talk ».

A drone lands on the red carpet. As Andreas Raptopoulos presented his bold idea — Matternet, a network of drones to serve the 1 billion people with no access to roads — he flew out one of the crafts in question as he spoke. The friendly quadcopter surprised everyone in the room as it made a graceful landing on the famous TED carpet. Read more about the talk ».

Hetain Patel pulls a great reveal. Anyone who speaks Mandarin Chinese knew right off the bat the secret of this refreshing talk/performance on identity, a welcome moment of hilarity during the day. Read more about the talk ».

Jane McGonigal declares a thumb war. In the early morning at TED University, Jane McGonigal led the audience in a massive multiplayer thumb-wrestling match. Every single person in the audience was connected to everyone else — with both thumbs. Read about all the talks from TED University Session 1 ».

George Monbiot wows. George Monbiot was asked just three days ago if he would speak at TEDGlobal. According to his tweets, he memorized his talk on the train. And he absolutely wowed with his talk about what could happen if we “rewild” wolves, deer, mice, hawks and more. Read more about the talk ».

Kelly McGonigal says stress may have upsides. In perhaps the most comforting talk of all time, Kelly McGonigal explains to a super-stressed crowd that they will be just fine, so long as they believe stress is a good thing. Read about the talk ».

This TEDx clip with the flying pigs. This hilarious video was shown during Session 2, “Those Flying Things.” Enjoy.

TEDGlobal 2013, themed “Think Again,” begins today — June 10 — in Edinburgh, Scotland. After an impressive buildout over the weekend, attendees have started streaming in. The first session of talks, “Moments of Truth,” will begin on Tuesday morning at 11 am BST. We’ll be tweeting in detail from @TEDGlobal and more sparingly from @TEDNews. You’ll […]

TEDGlobal 2013: Think Again is right around the corner — and the program is packed with illustrious speakers addressing some of the most challenging and fascinating questions we face today. So how should you prepare for this influx of ideas from politics, science, the arts and beyond? To familiarize you with our speakers’ past work […]

Gaudy Editorscommented on Jun 12 2013

Alexcommented on Jun 12 2013

I’ve attended two TED Global conferences (one in Oxford, one in Edinburgh), and six TED and TED Global conferences livestream (including this one). I’ve also attended a half dozen TEDx events and spoken at one myself.

I loved the TED Live experience today and felt the day was amongst the best of TED yet. TYSM to to the TED and TED Global team, and the speakers for an outstanding day. I blogged a bit about it here: